


Bound

by Magnolia822



Series: The Tied Series [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Knotting, M/M, Porn With Plot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-12
Updated: 2012-05-12
Packaged: 2017-11-05 04:56:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magnolia822/pseuds/Magnolia822
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin learns the truth about Arthur's condition. Sequel to Tied. Which you should read first for . . . er . . . backstory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bound

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to AsyaAna for the beta!

  
It happens again. And again. Arthur finds Merlin in the most conspicuous places—in the stables, the kitchen, Gaius’s rooms—and lures him back to his chamber with a hot desire in his eyes that Merlin is helpless to resist.  
  
They’ve both decided that in order to keep Merlin’s magic secret from the king, he’ll have to continue his current duties, so he fetches and carries and polishes and mucks, all the while dreaming of Arthur, sometimes still full of his seed. He aches from their sex, a residual soreness that seeps into his bones, indistinguishable from pleasure. At night, he falls asleep exhausted, lonely in his small bed but unable to risk Gaius’s discovery of what is going on between them. While it is not wrong for servants and nobles to couple with one another, any risk, however slight, to their strange relationship is unbearable.  
  
“Why are you like this?” Merlin asks one day just after Arthur’s softening prick slips from his body. His legs are tired from being opened for so long, and Arthur soothes him with strong, calloused hands rubbing deep into the muscles.  
  
The question makes Arthur laugh. “I thought you knew everything, _Mer_ lin.”  
  
Too sated to be put out by Arthur’s teasing, Merlin snorts and rolls his eyes, waiting for him to continue.  
  
“There’s a legend,” Arthur says finally, “that some generations ago one of my ancestors, a powerful warlord in the north, was unable to sire an heir. He called on a sorcerer to help him. But the warlord was cruel, unkind to magical people, and the sorcerer hated him.”  
  
“Typical,” Merlin says, poking Arthur in the ribs. Arthur leaves off his massage with a sigh and lies back on the bed, hands behind his head. He’s beautiful like this, golden where the flickering candlelight touches his skin.  
  
“In any case, instead of giving him an heir, the sorcerer cursed my ancestor and all of his male kin with _this_ ,” Arthur gestures to the knot, “this deformity, ensuring all Pendragon men will be forced to mate like beasts.” It’s the first time Arthur has ever referred to himself as deformed. How can he not know how even the thought of Arthur’s knot makes Merlin weak with desire?  
  
“I can think of worse revenge,” Merlin says, letting his hand travel down to where Arthur is spent.  
  
“Can you? You do know I cannot find release unless I am latched with another.”  
  
Merlin nods, flushing in spite of himself. “Yes. I concluded that.” Often since that first time, Merlin has wondered who else has had the privilege of lying with Arthur. He tries not to think about it, or whether he’s the only one currently consorting with the prince. Jealousy makes his magic prickle up, threaten to curl around Arthur possessively.  
  
Something about Arthur’s expression makes Merlin pause, releasing his mind from those troubling thoughts and drawing it to others. “What aren’t you telling me?”  
  
“I can only find my release when I latch, and I can only latch to my mate.” Arthur’s hand drifts to where Merlin’s fingers play in the soft hair of his groin. Already, his cock is stirring again, the knot more swollen than it should be after such intense pleasure.  
  
“What?” Merlin nearly squeaks the word.  
  
“You, Merlin. It is only since you arrived at Camelot that I came into my heat.”  
  
The words and their implications shock Merlin through to his core, his insides growing liquid and pliant. “So you’re saying I’m your . . . mate.”  
  
“Yes,” Arthur says, his eyes darkening. “Good of you to follow along, Merlin.”  
  
“Oh, don’t be a prat. I’m just . . . wow.”  
  
“Does it bother you?” Arthur’s fingers lace through his, and together their hands trail a path up Arthur’s body to his mouth, where he plants a soft kiss on each of Merlin’s knuckles. His gaze is so intense, still focused on Merlin and waiting for his reaction. Of course there can be only one.  
  
“No. I only want to be yours.”  
  
The confession makes a light flare up behind Arthur’s eyes. He offers Merlin a hungry smile. “Good. If you had given me any other answer I don’t know what I might have done.”  
  
With a quick movement, Merlin finds himself dragged over Arthur’s supine body, their chests rising and falling against each other to the ragged rhythm of their breathing. Around them, the room is hot, pulsing with the heat of the summer and mutual desire.  
  
Merlin noses against Arthur’s sweaty temple, inhaling the spicy scent of him, and isn’t at all shocked when he feels fingers press around his sore hole, slipping in the wetness there. When the moon is as it is tonight—full and bright in the sky—Arthur’s need is great.  
  
“You’re still wet with me,” Arthur says with a growl, licking at his throat. Sometimes it’s unclear whether Arthur wants to bed him or devour him. Merlin presses his arse back in response to urge Arthur’s fingers inside. “I’ll have you again.” His eyes are slits, daring Merlin to object. “Now.”  
  
“Aren’t you tired?” Merlin asks with feigned reticence, all part of their game.  
  
“Yes. But my need is stronger. I will have you.”  
  
With a slow push up into him, Arthur’s cock finds its place. Already it has begun to fill, the process that will keep them locked together for hours. He’s tender-sore as the knot forces inside and completes the latch, tugging at his rim when Arthur swivels his hips. Merlin’s legs shake, and Arthur reaches up and draws Merlin down for a kiss that begins with lips and ends with Merlin’s heart knocking against his ribs, trying to find its place in Arthur’s chest.  
  
For a long while they lay flush together until the need rises and Arthur gives a familiar moan. Merlin struggles up again so that he’s astride Arthur and starts to ride him with a slow grinding motion. His cock juts out between them, bobbing, the foreskin pulled taut. Arthur watches him move with black eyes, so lost to his lust.  
  
“You take me so well,” Arthur says as he begins to spend, his head snapping back as his teeth bury into his bottom lip. “All of my seed.”  
  
Merlin can feel it, the hot pulses within him as Arthur’s cock starts to empty. He sighs and leans back, squeezing his arse and moaning as Arthur’s hands guide his hips, rocking him as the knot catches and tugs. He grabs his own cock at the base and begins to stroke, curling his palm around the wet, sensitive head on each pass.  
  
“So gorgeous,” Arthur says, though the words come out more like a gasp. He seems like a man in a fever, delirious as his hips lift, body glistening with the sweat of exertion as he comes again and again. Merlin wants to taste Arthur’s skin, and so he gathers one of Arthur’s hands to lick between salty fingers, suckling them inside his mouth one by one as Arthur cries his name.  
  
Merlin can do nothing but rock into it, and his first orgasm takes him by surprise, welling up from the place where they’re joined. He shudders and Arthur holds him, soothes him with petting hands and soft words because he knows about pleasure so deep it causes pain.  
  
“I . . . I . . .” Merlin can’t get the words out, the things he wants to say about love and belonging and fullness. Arthur shushes him and says those things and more.  
  
“I have more for you,” Arthur says, draws up his knees behind to help Merlin, give him a place to rest. “Do you want it?”  
  
“Yes, please, please.” Even as he speaks, Merlin feels another burst of warmth inside of him. He barely knows how he can contain it all, but his body responds, cock hardening again. The magic Merlin can’t contain whips the curtains back from the bed and sends papers scattering like giant moths.  
  
“I want only to please you,” Arthur whispers, and with some effort rises to wrap his arms around Merlin, cocooning him in an embrace that Merlin returns.  
  
They fill the room with their sounds, and when Merlin spends a second time, Arthur tastes his release, groans, and climaxes again.  
  
Later as they lay in each other’s arms, now truly sated, Merlin feels himself start to drift away.  
  
“Not running off and leaving me tonight?” Arthur asks, bringing him out of sleep.  
  
Merlin turns and looks up from the crook of Arthur’s arm, trying to discern the expression on the prince’s face.  
  
“I don’t run off,” he protests.  
  
“You do.”  
  
“I’m only trying to be discreet, Arthur. And anyway you’ve never asked me to stay.”  
  
“I’m asking now.” Arthur’s tone is serious.  
  
“But your father . . .”  
  
“My father knows.”  
  
Merlin starts, hand fluttering to his throat as his pulse thunders.  
  
“Not about your magic. About us. That you’re meant for me.”  
  
“How does—”  
  
“I should say it would be surprising if the entire castle didn’t know, the way you carry on when we’re together,” Arthur says with a grin. Merlin’s face flushes, and he gives Arthur a playful slap that the prince deflects.  
  
“But he doesn’t mind?”  
  
“My father is a Pendragon, as I am. He knows it cannot be helped.” The words are filled with weighted meaning. For the first time since Arthur discussed his heritage, the truth of it sinks in. “That is not to say he’s happy about it, you being a servant. And a man,” Arthur finishes.  
  
“Oh. Your heir.” Uther must be devastated . . . and Arthur. If Arthur cannot get a woman with child . . .  
  
“It’s quite impossible. I’m afraid the Pendragon dynasty may die with me.”  
  
The thought of Arthur’s death sends a cold frisson down Merlin’s spine, chilling him despite the warmth of Arthur’s limbs wrapped around him. Arthur must feel Merlin’s shudder. His arms tighten, and he offers Merlin another kiss.  
  
“Let’s not think on that. I am young yet.”  
  
“Yes,” Merlin agrees. Arthur’s mouth has the uncanny ability to banish the desolate thoughts. Even now he knows his life will end with Arthur's.  
  
“And you are a wizard, after all,” Arthur says, stroking Merlin’s hair as their lips part. “Sometimes I feel like I could put a child into you.”  
  
Merlin laughs at the absurd notion, but his insides tingle all the same at the thought of it. He smiles fondly down at his prince until Arthur kisses his smile away.  
  
“One day,” Arthur says, growing serious again, “you’ll be free. I promise.”  
  
“But not from you.”  
  
“No,” Arthur agrees. “Never from me.”


End file.
